Log Horizon is about a group of adventurers trapped inside Elder Tale, a massively multiplayer online role playing game (henceforth simplified as MMO) world.
First and foremost, the intentions for using an MMO setting is extremely dubious. The entrapment’s impact on the characters is diminutive – they seem almost impassive to their predicament. Such unnatural behavior is visibly a deliberate attempt by the author to ignore the existence of and any connections to the real world. The choice of integrating of MMO elements with a fantasy world, rather than setting the story in a traditional one, is naught more than pandering to its audience. The lack of any sexual fanservice is completely made up for by the fact that the entire show is fanservice to people who blindly enjoy seeing gaming elements in their anime, no matter the quality. The MMO-integration is not used as a device to set up or advance the plot – it is the plot that is blatantly abused for its MMO-fanservice. As a show that lets its gimmicky premise unnaturally dictate the entire narrative rather than using the premise as a means to set up the desired story, Log Horizon was bound to failure from the very beginning.
For being a fanservice show, Log Horizon seems to not know its audience. It is not correctly aimed at MMO-players as it goes to great lengths to explain the most rudimentary mechanics as if they are great revelations. It might have been somewhat forgivable if such moments were limited in occurrence or length, but they seem to be half the point of the entire series. It would take half an episode to bestow upon its viewers the great insight that is the teamwork between two people which encompassed almost an entire five abilities. Another half episode would then be used to drop the indescribably eye-opening revelation that different members of a team could fill different roles in a team (!!!!). I cannot imagine anyone that has played a MMO for a more than a couple of hours deriving any sort of pleasure from such juvenilities. If on the other hand Log Horizon’s aim is to show people unfamiliar with MMO games the beauty of such games, however unlikely that is, it is nonetheless painting an erroneous and simplified picture of them.
The characters in Log Horizon are unbearably bland; each one of them are derived from overused stereotypes, and little effort is spared to develop them beyond their archetypes. There is the scheming bespectacled guy(with a self-insertion quality of kindness), the tiny loli girl, the perverted best friend, the seductive gentleman, the scheming glasses woman(who in a brilliant display of creativity was gifted with a love for abusing lolis) and so on, the characters show no depth or any signs of subtle development throughout the series. The loli assassin Akatsuki is the epitome of Log Horizons disastrous characterization. She is implied to be the second most important character of the show, yet after 15 episodes she has filled no apparent purpose in the storyline apart from acting out the duties of a loli, i.e. being cute, being abused by loli lovers, and looking up to others. Any other role that she fills are of such insignificance that it becomes apparent the author is just trying to justify her existence in the story.
Another major problem of Log Horizon is how lacking in self-consciousness it is. Being an exceedingly inane show, the author astoundingly seems to think that it is bursting with intelligence and wit. It goes through significant troubles to build up atmosphere and anticipation for the characters’ cunning plots, which always turn out either completely juvenile or utterly predictable. Each of these moments are accompanied by cornily dramatic voice-acting, clichéd shifts of tone in art, and overly intense background music, which all contribute to making the already bland show outright ludicrous.
Please excuse my poor writing which is more rant than review; it is difficult to contain my disappointment in Log Horizon. I was not expecting quality writing or engaging themes; I merely enjoy seeing MMO elements in anime and hoped for an enjoyable show. I could never have imagined the disaster that it turned out to be. While not completely devoid of value, the flaws simply outweigh anything the show does right. Log Horizon may be slightly better in craft than Sword Art Online, but it lacks the trainwrecking fun that SAO had to offer. There is simply no reason to watch Log Horizon.
